Common Planner
K–12 Standards

Seventh Grade: United States Studies

Other Minnesota Social Studies sets

Citizenship and Government

  • 1

    Civic Skills: Apply civic reasoning and demonstrate civic skills for the purpose of informed and engaged lifelong civic participation.7.1.1.1

    1.  

      Participate in civil discourse on issues in the contemporary United States and evaluate arguments including identifying pros and cons.

  • 2

    Democratic Values and Principles: Explain democratic values and principles that guide governments, societies and communities. Analyze the tensions within the United States constitutional government.7.1.2.1

    1.  

      Evaluate how well principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence and preamble to the U.S. Constitution have been applied throughout United States history, including how they have evolved (if applicable) over time.

  • 3

    Rights and Responsibilities: Explain and evaluate rights, duties and responsibilities in democratic society.7.1.3.1

    1.  

      Explain landmark Supreme Court decisions involving the Bill of Rights and other individual protections. Explain how these decisions helped define the scope and limits of personal, political and economic rights.

  • 4

    Governmental Institutions and Political Processes: Explain and evaluate processes, rules and laws of United States governmental institutions at local, state and federal levels and within Tribal Nations.7.1.4.1

    1.  

      Describe how laws are created. Classify the differences between civil, criminal, tribal and juvenile law. Give examples of local, state, federal and tribal laws. Describe the constitutional amendment process and the impact of voting amendments to explain changes in voting laws and election processes.

  • 5

    Public Policy: Analyze how public policy is shaped by governmental and nongovernmental institutions. Analyze how people and communities take action to solve problems and shape public policy.7.1.5.1

    1.  

      Explain how political parties, interest groups, various types of media and public opinion shape public policy formation.

  • 6

    Tribal Nations: Evaluate the unique political status, trust relationships and governing structures of sovereign Tribal Nations and the United States.7.1.6.1

    1.  

      Explain the impacts of treaties and policies from the perspectives of the United States and Tribal Nations and analyze ways in which Tribal Nations are seeking to enforce treaty rights.

Economics

  • 7

    Economic Inquiry: Use economic models and reasoning and data analysis to construct an argument and propose a solution related to an economic question. Evaluate the impact of the proposed solution on various communities that would be affected.7.2.7.1

    1.  

      Using cost-benefit analysis, analyze the opportunity cost of a decision made in U.S. history during times of war.

  • 8

    Fundamental Economic Concepts: Analyze how scarcity and artificial shortages force individuals, organizations, communities, and governments to make choices and incur opportunity costs. Analyze how the decisions of individuals, organizations, communities, and governments affect economic equity and efficiency.7.2.8.1

    1.  

      Explain different ways that goods and services can be allocated when scarcity exists.

  • 9

    Personal Finance: Apply economic concepts and models to develop individual and collective financial goals and strategies for achieving these goals, taking into consideration historical and contemporary conditions that either inhibit or advance the creation of individual and generational wealth.7.2.9.1

    1.  

      Apply reasoned decision-making techniques, using primary sources. Explain why different groups across different cultures and communities may prioritize different values when faced with the same alternatives.

  • 10

    Microeconomics: Explain and evaluate how resources are used and how goods and services are distributed within different economic systems. Analyze how incentives influence the decisions of consumers, producers, and governments. Evaluate the intended and unintended consequences of these decisions from multiple perspectives.7.2.10.1

    1.  

      Explain how profit can be an incentive for entrepreneurs to develop medical breakthroughs, new technology, green energy and other benefits to society, but the profit motive can also lead to negative outcomes including resource exploitation and unfair labor practices.

  • 12

    Global and International: Explain why people trade and why nations encourage or limit trade. Analyze the costs and benefits of international trade and globalization on communities and the environment.7.2.12.1

    1.  

      Distinguish between groups that benefit and that are hurt by a specific trade policy.

Geography

  • 13

    Geospatial Skills and Inquiry: Apply geographic tools, including geospatial technologies, and geographic inquiry to solve spatial problems. 7.3.13.1

    1.  

      Create and evaluate fixed and dynamic maps from different places, times and perspectives using geospatial technologies.

  • 13

    Geospatial Skills and Inquiry: Apply geographic tools, including geospatial technologies, and geographic inquiry to solve spatial problems. 7.3.13.2

    1.  

      Investigate spatial questions to make claims and support them with evidence from maps.

  • 14

    Places and Regions: Describe places and regions, explaining how they are influenced by power structures.7.3.14.1

    1.  

      Describe how physical and human characteristics and power structures influence the function of places over time.

  • 15

    Human Systems: Analyze patterns of movement and interconnectedness within and between cultural, economic and political systems from a local to global scale.7.3.15.1

    1.  

      Analyze patterns of movement concerning migration of peoples, movement of goods and ideas, trade networks, and interconnections between places that impacted life in the American colonies.

  • 17

    Culture: Investigate how sense of place is impacted by different cultural perspectives.7.3.17.1

    1.  

      Evaluate political, economic, spatial and historical perspectives used to justify the displacement/removal of Indigenous peoples throughout the past in the United States.

History

  • 18

    Context, Change, and Continuity: Ask historical questions about context, change and continuity in order to identify and analyze dominant and nondominant narratives about the past.7.4.18.1

    1.  

      Compare and contrast the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on different groups in the United States and its territories, and identify one dominant narrative and one nondominant narrative.

  • 18

    Context, Change, and Continuity: Ask historical questions about context, change and continuity in order to identify and analyze dominant and nondominant narratives about the past.7.4.18.2

    1.  

      Describe the effects of racism and legalized segregation on American society, including the compromise of 1876, the rise of “Jim Crow,” immigration restrictions and Indian Removal.

  • 18

    Context, Change, and Continuity: Ask historical questions about context, change and continuity in order to identify and analyze dominant and nondominant narratives about the past.7.4.18.3

    1.  

      Analyze connections between World War II, Fascism and the Holocaust. Identify the relationship between individuals’ experiences of these events and broader historical contexts.

  • 18

    Context, Change, and Continuity: Ask historical questions about context, change and continuity in order to identify and analyze dominant and nondominant narratives about the past.7.4.18.4

    1.  

      Trace the origins of the Long Civil Rights Movement by identifying key events and explaining their significance.

  • 19

    Historical Perspectives: Identify diverse points of view, and describe how one’s frame of reference influences historical perspective. 7.4.19.1

    1.  

      Examine the history of U.S. expansion from multiple Indigenous perspectives.

  • 19

    Historical Perspectives: Identify diverse points of view, and describe how one’s frame of reference influences historical perspective. 7.4.19.2

    1.  

      Analyze multiple perspectives (social, political, economic) about the Cold War and describe why some perspectives may have changed over time.

  • 20

    Historical Sources and Evidence: Investigate a variety of historical sources by: a) analyzing primary and secondary sources; b) identifying perspectives and narratives that are absent from the available sources; and c) interpreting the historical context, intended audience, purpose, and author’s point of view of these sources.7.4.20.1

    1.  

      Use historical sources to describe the strategies used by suffragists in their campaigns to secure the right to vote. Determine whose voices are represented and whose voices are absent in the sources. Identify the 19th Amendment.

  • 20

    Historical Sources and Evidence: Investigate a variety of historical sources by: a) analyzing primary and secondary sources; b) identifying perspectives and narratives that are absent from the available sources; and c) interpreting the historical context, intended audience, purpose, and author’s point of view of these sources.7.4.20.2

    1.  

      Generate questions based on multiple historical sources and identify further areas of inquiry about the Great Depression, focusing on the impact on workers, women, and ethnic and racial minorities.

  • 20

    Historical Sources and Evidence: Investigate a variety of historical sources by: a) analyzing primary and secondary sources; b) identifying perspectives and narratives that are absent from the available sources; and c) interpreting the historical context, intended audience, purpose, and author’s point of view of these sources.7.4.20.3

    1.  

      Evaluate the credibility of sources about a historical event found on the internet by determining (if possible) how and why the sources were created, how they were circulated, their intended audience and whether the source contains citations.

  • 21

    Causation and Argumentation: Integrate evidence from multiple historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument or compelling narrative about the past.7.4.21.1

    1.  

      Construct an argument using evidence from multiple sources, including primary sources, about the relationship between freedom and slavery in the early U.S. Republic.

  • 21

    Causation and Argumentation: Integrate evidence from multiple historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument or compelling narrative about the past.7.4.21.2

    1.  

      Compare and contrast the central arguments in secondary works of history to examine the changing role of the United States on a global scale, including overseas expansion and the impact of U.S. involvement in World War I.

  • 21

    Causation and Argumentation: Integrate evidence from multiple historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument or compelling narrative about the past.7.4.21.3

    1.  

      Create a timeline of major technological, economic and/or social changes in the United States since the mid-20th century. Analyze the intended and unintended impact of those changes. Evaluate the relative influence of various causes of events and developments.

  • 22

    Connecting Past and Present: Use historical methods and sources to identify and analyze the roots of a contemporary issue. Design a plan to address it.7.4.22.1

    1.  

      Generate a hypothesis about the impact of the Industrial Revolution today using historical and geographic sources, including environmental and economic impacts.

  • 22

    Connecting Past and Present: Use historical methods and sources to identify and analyze the roots of a contemporary issue. Design a plan to address it.7.4.22.2

    1.  

      Identify a pressing contemporary issue in the student’s community or the United States, examine its historical context and design a plan to address it.

Ethnic Studies

  • 23

    Identity: Analyze the ways power and language construct the social identities of race, religion, geography, ethnicity, and gender. Apply these understandings to one’s own social identities and other groups living in Minnesota, centering those whose stories and histories have been marginalized, erased, or ignored.7.5.23.1

    1.  

      Examine the benefits and consequences of power and privilege on issues associated with poverty, income and the accumulation of wealth.

  • 24

    Resistance: Describe how individuals and communities have fought for freedom and liberation against systemic and coordinated exercises of power locally and globally. Identify strategies or times that have resulted in lasting change. Organize with others to engage in activities that could further the rights and dignity of all.7.5.24.1

    1.  

      Examine the goals and actions of community groups, organizations and other freedom movements that fought against injustices (i.e., local, national and global).

  • 24

    Resistance: Describe how individuals and communities have fought for freedom and liberation against systemic and coordinated exercises of power locally and globally. Identify strategies or times that have resulted in lasting change. Organize with others to engage in activities that could further the rights and dignity of all.7.5.24.2

    1.  

      Investigate the struggle for immigration rights and the rights of all immigrants in the United States.

  • 25

    Ways of Knowing and Methodologies: Use ethnic and Indigenous studies methods and sources in order to understand the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and apply lessons from the past that could eliminate historical and contemporary injustices.7.5.25.1

    1.  

      Examine the impact and memory of U.S. expansion and native dispossession today and how it’s memorialized.

  • 25

    Ways of Knowing and Methodologies: Use ethnic and Indigenous studies methods and sources in order to understand the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and apply lessons from the past that could eliminate historical and contemporary injustices.7.5.25.2

    1.  

      Examine the impact and legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the women’s rights movement today. Compare and contrast strategies and objectives of movements today with movements in the past.

Frequently asked questions

What grade levels do these standards cover?
Grade 7

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